Lewis Hamilton chases a record eighth victory as Formula 1 arrives at the Hungaroring for the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix, marking the final round before the summer break. Charles Leclerc set the pace in Friday morning practice for Ferrari, while championship leader Kimi Antonelli looks to defend his advantage.
Formula 1’s teams and drivers convened in Budapest for the final weekend of racing before the summer break, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.
Ferrari Sets the Pace as Leclerc Tops Friday Practice in Budapest
Ferrari carried its strong European-leg form straight into Friday morning’s opening session, where Charles Leclerc posted a benchmark lap time of 1:19.075 to top the timesheets in FP1 at the Hungaroring. The Monegasque driver edged out Max Verstappen by nearly half a second, though Leclerc’s session ended early when he limped back to the pit lane with a suspected gearbox issue.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton finished the opening practice in third place, trailing Leclerc by 0.543 seconds. The seven-time world champion is hunting his eighth victory at a circuit where he already holds records for eight wins and nine pole positions.
We are more or less there but at the same time, the last time we thought that was the case was Monaco and it went a lot worse than we expected,
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Leclerc acknowledged the team’s strong prospects on the twisty layout while sounding a note of caution regarding unpredictable car behavior. I think with these cars the lesson is you can never take it for granted.
Red Bull Battles Handling Woes While Aston Martin Debuts 16 Upgrades
Max Verstappen finished FP1 in second position behind Leclerc, but the reigning world champion expressed sharp frustration with his RB22 during the session. Radio transmissions captured by the Dutchman complaining to his race engineer Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase, stating: Downshifts are horrendous, and the cars is jumping like crazy. I have really bad jumping on the front axle, like really bad.
Verstappen also faces a post-session stewards’ investigation regarding an alleged erratic driving incident involving former teammate Carlos Sainz.
Further down the pit lane, Aston Martin introduced a massive package of 16 new updates designed by Adrian Newey in an effort to drag the team out of a difficult run at the back of the grid. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll initially found temporary relief running in the lower half of the timing charts during early hard-tyre runs. However, progress was halted when Stroll’s AMR26 suffered a violent snap exiting Turn 2, leaving the Canadian’s car stranded at the exit of Turn 3 with roughly 20 minutes remaining in the session.
Mercedes enters the weekend maintaining a 73-point lead over Ferrari in the Teams’ standings, despite the Italian outfit’s recent resurgence and victory at Silverstone. With practice sessions continuing through Saturday morning ahead of qualifying at 15:00 BST, broadcast coverage is available globally via Sky Sports F1, ESPN, and BBC Radio 5 Live.
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